[Meme] Prompt!fic time again :-)

[edenfalling]

I had today off work after all, and I am bored. None of my current writing projects are really calling to me, so... please tell me what to write!

The first six people to give me a fanfic prompt (on LJ and/or DW) will get a ficlet of at least 100 words. :-D

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Fill List:

1. Last Call for cherokee1: 2,250 words, Naruto AU. Sakura and Naruto discuss their futures during their last summer as camp counselors. The sociopolitical details of the AU ended up dominating the fic, despite my occasional attempts to remember the camp setting. Oops. :-/

2. Implications, aka Jim Kirk Loves His Crew for jjhunter: 575 words, Star Trek: AOS. What it says on the tin. (But not like that. Get your mind out of the gutter! :-p )

3. What Is Essential for askerian: 3,200 words, Naruto AU. Sakura went to summer camp to be with her best friend Ino. Somehow over the next two years, she ended up best friends with two jerks instead. Another installment of the summer-camp-and-politics AU.

4. Narutostuck: The Spider and the Flies for runespoor: 2,400 words, Homestuck/Naruto fusion. The eastern countries have reached out to the new government of the Land of Space, inviting the village of Hidden Time to send participants to the upcoming chuunin exam in Konoha. Vriska Serket is very interested in whether her country's new leaders will accept, and ropes her teammates into helping her spy on their meeting.

5. After Frost for hungrytiger11: 4,850 words, Naruto AU. In the shadow of a vote over a bilateral free trade agreement with Thunder Country, Hyuuga Hinata moves on. Warnings for depression, learned helplessness, severely dysfunctional families, and a traumatic backstory involving kidnapping, long-term captivity, and murder. Another installment of the summer-camp-and-politics AU.

6. Trollstuck for explodingfrogs: WIP, Homestuck AU. Wherein the four beta!kids are and always were trolls on Alternia, Sgrub/Sburb does not exist, and Troll Jade Harley is on a quest to keep her friend Aradia from dying. Things will almost certainly get more complicated, but that's a good place to start. (Collaborative audience participation fic! Come play with me!)

Comments

[edenfalling]

"Really? Because I can't," Sakura admitted.

Naruto flapped his hands, his shoulders jostling against her shins. "Well, yeah! You're smart, you're sneaky when you need to be, you never give up, you're good at meeting new people and making them like you without having to fight them, you don't look like you're dangerous even though you totally are... Perfect spy."

Sakura hummed noncommittally and scanned the lake, making sure the campers weren't in trouble. The canoe flotilla was busily negotiating today's obstacle course, the diving lesson on the mid-lake platform was proceeding as planned, and the younger kids splashing about in the roped-off area by the artificial beach were noisily engaged in some kind of volleyball-water polo hybrid. Situal normal, everything fine.

"The thing I don't get is why you'd want to join ANBU," Naruto added, looking serious again. "I know you don't like the government much, and you've always been anti-war. You and Sasuke argued about that forever. So why jump into everything you hate?"

Sakura carded her fingers through her friend's messy, water-spiked hair as she tried to formulate her answer. "I don't like fighting and I don't like how the clans dominate the government, but Fire Country is my home and I want to protect our people just as much as you and Sasuke do. I just never figured there was any way for me to do that directly, and also I do honestly like the idea of being a doctor. But if I can help..."

Naruto practically purred under her touch. "Yeah, yeah, if you can help...?"

"Then don't I have an obligation to do whatever I can?"

Naruto caught her hands, stilling her fingers. "Bullshit," he said, abruptly turning to face her. "Nobody's required to do anything. This isn't a police state, no matter what laws that asshole Danzo wants to pass if he ever gets elected."

"Yeah, well maybe I want to do something! Maybe I want to make sure things like what happened to Sasuke never happen to anyone else!" Sakura said. "You know it's not healthy for him to be in the army, but you never said one damn thing to stop him from applying to the Academy. He's going to get himself killed before we're thirty, and even if he lives, I'm afraid he's going to end up like Danzo and too many other retired soldiers. Especially on top of everything else! I mean, you know he's not stable. How could he be? If your family had been killed in a terrorist attack--"

She stopped, swallowed her words.

Naruto watched her silently, his hands gentle around hers.

"I'm sorry. That was horribly insensitive of me. I can't believe I forgot," Sakura said.

She really couldn't believe it -- after all, the footage of Naruto's parents' death was only replayed on every national holiday and every other time television commentors talked about the origins of the current cold war with Water, Thunder, and Earth Countries. It was etched into everyone's memory, a national moment of shame and catharsis. Namikaze Minato, the first commoner elected as prime minister, standing on a platform at a rally, campaigning to rouse public support for the free trade agreement he'd brokered with Wind Country. A grenade arching through the air. The prime minister shouting for people to run, throwing himself on the weapon. His wife turning to shield the infant son in her arms. The explosion. The bloody ruin emerging from the smoke and flames. The fearful wail of an orphaned child.